I also didn’t notice Ink watching me stare at his hands until it was too late to pretend like I wasn’t doing exactly what I was doing. When my eyes met his, he held my gaze. I couldn’t tell if he was waiting for me to ask or if he was trying to give me the answer.
“Your food’s going to get cold,” he finally said and went back to his meal.
“Excuse me for a moment.”
I hurried to the supply room, grabbed three small bags, filled them with ice, and returned to our curtained-off area. Without a word, I placed two on the table where the food had been. Then I handed one to Ink before I sat down and resumed eating my meal.
Ink rested his hand in his lap and placed the bag of ice on top of it. “Thank you,” he said quietly.
“If that happened how I think it did, I should be thanking you,” I said low enough for only him to hear.
“What do you think happened?” he asked.
I looked at him pointedly and raised my eyebrow.
He grinned and nodded. “Well, if it did happen how you think, I would say it was my pleasure.”
I waited a few moments before asking, “Do you know their names?”
“Yes. Do you want to know them?”
“Yes, but not now,” I said and glanced at the curtain. I didn’t even realize I had done it until his next words.
“They’re here,” he said and wiped his mouth with a napkin.
“I, uh, I don’tknowthat.” And I didn’t. I assumed, perhaps deduced.
“I do,” he said and wiped his mouth with a napkin. “Are you concerned about something happening?”
“Uh, yeah,” I said with a bit more sarcasm than I intended.
He nodded thoughtfully. “I can safely say that the injured parties are in no shape to be a threat. And the ones responsible for their current shape are satisfied with the results. So, that just leaves you.”
I couldn’t help myself. He was basically telling me he beat the man who drugged my child and tried to rape her. He made him hurt. And it sounded delicious. With wide eyes and an overeager expression, I leaned forward and asked, “Will you tell me about it? Hypothetically, I mean.”
He gave me a curious look. “What do you want to know?”
“I want to know if they screamed or cried. Did they piss themselves? Vomit? Did they beg you to stop? Did you make them hurt enough to reconsider ever doing anything like this again?”
“Yes,” he said simply.
“Yes?”
“The answer to everything you asked is yes.”
“Really?”
“Hypothetically,” he reminded me.
“Right. Hypothetically.”
He continued to stare at me with a look I couldn’t decipher. Finally, I looked down at my plate of food and started eatingagain. He’d satisfied my curiosity and my need for revenge for the time being.
There was something to be said about the way they handled things. While it wouldn’t be considered the right thing to do by many, I had to disagree. If the boys had been arrested, they would have been bailed or bonded out within a few days at most, free to continue terrorizing innocent people until their court date, if they didn’t reach some kind of plea bargain resulting in community service and court-mandated classes. Instead, the Blackwings taught them a lesson they wouldn’t forget and put them out of commission for a few weeks.
The next few hours went by at a snail’s pace but were, thankfully, uneventful. Well, uneventful as far as the girls were concerned. I, however, did something I shouldn’t have.
I excused myself under the guise of going to the restroom and stopped by the nurses’ station on my way back.
